When we lived in Detroit and used to take the short cut through Canada to New York state we occasionally had to stop in rural/small town Canada. The food there is pretty much indistinguishable from rural/small town US, outside of a few details. “Light” and “fresh” are not the first adjectives that come to mind.
Correct. In the US for decades white eggs were so favored by buyers that brown eggs almost entirely disappeared.
Now the trend is starting to reverse.
I believe the term is “yob.”
Orange cheddar is what they’re talking about. Australian cheddar is pale yellow.
Eh? I’m English, and I’ve never heard ‘not half bad’ used to mean anything other than 'pretty much ok; where have you come across the other interpretation?
Incidently, I found it very hard to find reasonably healthy cheap food in some areas of Australia- I spent a fun afternoon trying to find some form of veggie protein, ideally tofu, in Rockhampton, the supermarkets didn’t seem to even know what I was talking about, and the only tiny health food shop I found didn’t stock any.
Here’s a little primer on egg preferences by country. It says that Japan and the US prefer white eggs, while Australia and Europe prefer brown.
I’ve heard that the swimming costume clad actors are frequently freezing during the beach scenes. As soon as the director shouts cut they are wrapping themselves in blankets
Nah, it’s “bogan”.
Really? I assumed they were talking about american cheese (which is usually met with some level of distain here and abroad) and not cheddar. What’s wrong with yellow cheddar?
I just this did this the other day! I’m an American, in America, and I still didn’t noticed the milk was vanilla flavored until I had some and discovered it was disgusting. What threw me is that I’m used to associating the flavored milks with cartoon-y packaging, and this particular brand’s carton looked very normal.
Just more on the NYC garbage situation, another element that is businesses and residences are all very intertwined. In almost all of Manhattan (which is where I’m assuming your friend spent the most time), every street is a mix of businesses and housing. The businesses produce a lot more trash that gets added to the pick up (and usually use private garbage collection services so you might see the private trucks and city trucks all together, making it seem like even more like endless garbage). In general, the garbage collection is pretty speedy and efficient, it’s just very possible that as you’re walking around, you keep seeing the waiting garbage as you’re moving from area to area.
And again in New York, I agree with those who suggested that locals know how to identify the food options with more variety (and healthier variety), but a visitor won’t have that knack, especially with the fast food options being so flashy and recognizable. Really, the healthy restaurants are RIGHT THERE, but I can see how a tourist might walk right by.
Australians, please come visit the U.S.! Most Americans love meeting visitors. Please, come take pictures of our squirrels!
Yeah, food is greasy and unhealthy, at least at fast food restaurants, and many other ones as well. There are healthy places to eat too, but you have to look for them. They’re outnumbered at least a couple of times to one. And they’re more expensive. Plus portions are ginormous. I can never finish a plate.
There are certainly homeless people everywhere, at least in any city of any size. I don’t know about the cardboard and trolleys or whatever. They don’t let them build structures around here, at least not unless they’re off in the woods or otherwise hidden from view.
That’s certainly true here. Apparently all the utilities are under the roads, so whenever a new building goes up, they have to tear the shit out of roads to get at them. And of course they do a crappy job repairing the roads when they finally get done.
No. The economy’s improving, at least where I live. New commercial/residential stuff is going up all over the place. (One reason the roads are so shitty.)
I’d say TV is just nothing like reality, and never has been, so she shouldn’t judge the US naked on what she sees on TV.
The biggest difference is between tourist destinations like NY and Las Vegas and the rest of the country. I mean I love NY, and would love to live there (if I could afford it) but its nothing like the rest of the country. And of course Las Vegas is Las Vegas. It’s Disneyworld for grow ups. I’ve never been to Hawaii, but I’ve always heard it was beautiful, so I’m surprised if she got a bad impression there.
I dunno about disappearing. I grew up near Boston and never saw a white egg in person until I was in my twenties.
My experience is the same. The slogan was always “Brown eggs are local, and local eggs are fresh.” I just learned that goes back to trade with China in the days of the Yankee Clippers, and the hens that became the Rhode Island Red breed.
Eh? Nothing. Australians find orange cheddar a bit surprising because we’re used to it being yellow. I’m sure the reverse is probably true when Americans visit Australia.
Only some Americans. In NY & NE cheddar is mostly white. Yellow (orange) cheddar is hard to find. When I was a kid in Oklahoma cheddar was almost universally yellow (orange).
Interestingly, my Australian friend says she prefers the yellow (orange) cheese because it “looks more like cheese.”
:dubious: No it’s not. It’s the complete opposite. I live in New York and always get cheddar on my sandwiches. Rarely has it ever been white. I buy cheddar a lot from the deli counters and unless I specifically ask for white, it is always yellow. Go into the cheese section of any New York grocery store, most of the cheddar is yellow/orange.
I know but the meme is always, “if it’s something in America, it must be bad”.
Tofu? in Rockhampton? 
Good luck! In case you didn’t notice while you were there, you were looking for Tofu in the “Beef Capital of Australia”
My experience is the exact opposite of yours. Orange cheddar (industry term for it is “yellow”) is vanishingly rare in the NY and New England supermarkets I shop in. It’s all “white” cheddar (industry term is “white” - in reality it’s pale yellow)
As does the New York metropolitan area.